Apple TV Is Coming, Likely With Siri

At a time when Web TV users are fumbling with large,
clunky remotes (looking at you, Logitech Revue) or poor facsimiles of same said
keyboards on smartphones and tablets, Siri could be the saving grace for
improving poor Web TV input experiences worldwide.
"We also believe Apple could use Siri, its voice
recognition, personal assistant technology to bolster its TV offering and
simplify the chore of inputting information like show titles, or actor names, into
a TV (typically with a remote)," noted Piper Jaffray's Munster.

Ironically, while the financial analysts are all calling for
Siri on Apple TV, Gartner analyst Van Baker told eWEEK about the use of Siri
for Apple TV:

Television viewing is a pretty ingrained behavior and it is
by nature a lean back or passive experience. Changing that would be very
difficult. Yes, the grid system that television uses today is very cumbersome
but while it is cumbersome it is also familiar to consumers. As television is
also social it is hard to imagine voice as a controller for television. What
about competing commands, noisy environments? This is a significant challenge
for all of these reasons.

Instapaper creator Marco Arment noted: "The way to
revolutionize the TV market is to cut out all of the legacy. No cable
companies. No broadcast tuners. No channels. No DVRs. All Internet delivery.
All on-demand. No commercials. But that's an incredibly tall order. Apple can
do a lot, but I'm not sure that they can do that, given how much of it is out
of their control."
Sounds like an Apple Television would shore up Jobs'
legacy of illustrious "one-more-thing launches."
Indeed, Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty, who
has been closely following the floundering Web TV market for years, said Steve
Jobs went to CableLabs in Colorado a decade ago to learn what not to do in the
Web television market.
As such, he believes Apple will launch a fantastic TV
set with a service that will make TV more laid back and
easier to access than before.
"I think it's a very safe bet that within a year
we're going to see the easiest to brag about owning TV set come out with an
Apple logo on it," Doherty said. "It will anticipate what users want
from the connections they have."
Anticipation of what consumers want and need was always one of Jobs'
strengths. We could have quite the encore to look forward to.